title: Validation of DTI tractography-based measures of primary motor area connectivity in the squirrel monkey brain.
abstract: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography provides noninvasive measures of structural cortico-cortical connectivity of the brain. However, the agreement between DTI-tractography-based measures and histological 'ground truth' has not been quantified. In this study, we reconstructed the 3D density distribution maps (DDM) of fibers labeled with an anatomical tracer, biotinylated dextran amine (BDA), as well as DTI tractography-derived streamlines connecting the primary motor (M1) cortex to other cortical regions in the squirrel monkey brain. We evaluated the agreement in M1-cortical connectivity between the fibers labeled in the brain tissue and DTI streamlines on a regional and voxel-by-voxel basis. We found that DTI tractography is capable of providing inter-regional connectivity comparable to the neuroanatomical connectivity, but is less reliable measuring voxel-to-voxel variations within regions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America ; Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Yurui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Ann S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Choe
authors.forename: Iwona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stepniewska
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Malcolm J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Avison
authors.forename: Adam W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019921:Biotinylation; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003911:Dextrans / Q000378:metabolism; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D012453:Saimiri; D013194:Staining and Labeling
chemical_list: D003911:Dextrans